The Confédération générale des travailleurs
africains ('General Confederation of African
Workers', CGTA) was a trade union centre in French West
Africa, founded in 1956.

A leader of the FrenchConfédération
générale du travail (CGT) in West Africa, Bassirou Guèye, had
begun to promote the idea that African trade unionists should make
themselves independent from the French centres. At a meeting of the
Senegal-Mauritania branch of CGT,
held in Dakar November
11-November 12, 1955, the majority of delegates voted for
separation from the French CGT and the World Federation of Trade
Unions. After the break with CGT, these unions formed
CGT-Autonome. A conference was held in Saint-Louis on January 14-January
15, 1956 during which CGT-Autonome and the Guinean branch of CGT formed the CGTA. Sékou Touré and Seydou Diallo became
leaders of CGTA.[1][2]

CGTA held its first federal bureau meeting in Conakry, November 1956. The meeting was
attended by representatives from Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Ivory
Coast, Upper
Volta and Niger.[2] The
meeting decided that CGTA would remain unaffiliated to any French
federation. The question on international affiliation was postponed
to be decided later.[3]

CGTA rejected the notion of class struggle in the African context,
arguing that antagostic classes were not present in African
societies.[4][5]

CGTA had approximately 55,000 members, slightly smaller than the
CGT (which still had around 60,000 members in the region).[6]

CGT responded to the launching of CGTA by calling for an African
trade unionist unity conference. CGTA agreed in principle, but
wanted to delay the holding the conference (seeking to enlarge its
own ranks first, to get a better negotiating position ahead of the
unity conference). There were some unions, such as the railway
workers' union, that remained unaffiliated to any central. CGTA
hoped that such unions would join CGTA before a unity process. The
railway workers' union did however not agree to join CGTA. Instead,
they called for the foundation of a single independent union
federation. CGTA and CGT both agreed to the proposal, and on
January 16, 1957 they (and other major union formations in French
West Africa) merged to form Union générale des Travailleurs
d'Afrique noire (UGTAN).[3]